The invention is directed to an apparatus for optimized signal feed in communication systems.
There is the problem in contemporary communication systems of feeding the information signals to be processed to a plurality of internal system devices. This is especially true of the switching network assemblies of an ATM communication system that are arranged in close spatial proximity.
Since transmission rates of 3.3 Gbit/s can no longer be efficiently conducted via electrical lines, the feed of the information signals is realized via light waveguides. The latter are usually designed as optical (glass) fibers.
Optical power dividers are employed in the prior art in order to be able to efficiently feed the information signals to the plurality of internal system devices. These are designed such that one optical fiber is brought to the input side. A plurality of optical fibers leave the power divider at the output side. The information signals are thus supplied to the power divider via the fiber of the input side and are divided therein into a plurality of identically designed information signals. Each of the information signals divided in this way leaves the optical power divider via the fibers of the output side and is supplied to the following devices that come into consideration. An information signal can thus be simultaneously supplied to a plurality of devices.
For example, 1xc3x974 branchers are employed as optical power dividers in the prior art. This means that the optical power divider comprises one optical fiber arranged at the input side and a total of four optical fibers arranged at the output side. Further, 1xc3x972, 1xc3x978 or 1xc3x9716 branchers are employed in the prior art.
The use of these optical branchers harbors the problem that the user-friendliness is lost due to the plurality of internal system devices in a tight space. Particularly when expanding the communication system with further assemblies, there is then the risk that optical fibers will be mixed up and incorrectly connected.
European Patent Application EP 0 350 900 A2 discloses a method for fabricating optical branchers. However, how the guidance of optical fibers should occur in a communication system is not addressed anywhere therein.
United States Letters Patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,057 likewise discloses a method and an apparatus for the fabrication of optical branchers. However, how the guidance of optical fibers should occur in a communication system is also not addressed anywhere therein.
The object of the invention is to disclose an apparatus with which the guidance of optical fibers in a communication system can be implemented in a practical way.
According to the invention, an apparatus is provided for optimized signal feed in communication systems. A plurality of optical power dividers are provided to which optical fibers comprising a predetermined structure are supplied at an input side. The structure is established by the nature of the arrangement of the optical fibers relative to one another. The plurality of optical power dividers respectively divide each of the optical fibers into a plurality of M optical fibers where M is greater than 2. The divided optical fibers are combined into groups at the output side such that each group comprises a respective same structure as the fibers arranged at the input side.
What is especially advantageous in the invention is that the optical fibers are combined into groups at the output of the power divider, and that each group comprises the respectively same structure as the fibers brought in at the input side. A sorting of the fibers is thus achieved. The sorting result is thus handed over to the following devices.